VENEZUELA has called off public New Year's Eve festivities and social media sizzled with worry after the government revealed cancer-stricken President Hugo Chavez had taken a turn for the worse.
The streets of Caracas were quiet as front-page headlines relayed that Chavez had developed "new complications" from a respiratory infection after undergoing his fourth cancer-related surgery on December 11 in Havana.
His vice-president and political heir, Nicolas Maduro, broke the news from Havana on Sunday night, saying the condition of the Venezuelan leader was delicate and that he faced an uphill battle.
Chavez, the face of the Latin American left for more than a decade and a firebrand critic of what he calls US imperialism, has been in power since 1999 in Venezuela, an OPEC member that sits on top of the world's largest proven oil reserves.
For many Venezuelans, a holiday season without their ubiquitous comandante just wasn't the same.
"I do not know what will happen to Chavez, but we have never had a Christmas like this. Only God knows what will happen with him and with us," said 70-year-old retiree Miguel Enrique as he prepared to attend Mass.
Authorities cancelled a New Year's eve concert in a downtown plaza and Information Minister Ernesto Villegas urged "families in Caracas and Venezuela in general to ring in the New Year at home, praying and expressing hope for the health" of Chavez.
On Twitter, hashtags translating into expressions such as "Chavez will live and conquer" and "I love Chavez" were all the rage.
But Chavez is also deeply polarising, even though he has ruled for nearly 14 years, and his detractors spoke out too.
Chavez, 58, won another six-year term in October's presidential election, and is scheduled to be sworn in on January 10.
But his ill health has raised concerns that he won't be well enough to attend his inauguration.
Chavez's government has said that the inauguration can be postponed if the president is not fit enough to be sworn in.
Not so, said Veppex, a Miami-based association of 25,000 Venezuelans living outside their country as refugees or political exiles.
It insisted the constitution must be respected verbatim and that new elections must be held within 30 days if Chavez cannot be sworn in on the scheduled day. It said all signs were that he will not be.
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